Why is my 4th great grandmother showing as my 8th cousing 6 times removed

Private User - This is very frustrating. Do you see a little arrow circle at the upper right hand of the relationship box? If so, click on it and it will re-calculate the relationship.

We can't see your family group because they are private I assume, but if you cannot recalculate the relationship, go into the tree, starting with yourself and look at each relationship that leads to your 4th great grandmother -- actually click on the relationship -- and verify that the tree is connected correctly. Are your parents your parents, and so on. This happened to me at the beginning and it was either that I needed to re-calculate the relationship or that something was amiss in my tree due to merges or the wrong relationships.

Hi Hatte

Thanks for responding. I had clicked on that green pin several times, twice (to reset) but it comes up the same. My 4th great grandparents show as parents to my 3rd great grandmother and she shows as their daughter. However while my third great grandmother shows as my third great grandmother, her father shows as my 8th cousin 6 times removed and her mother shows as my 8th cousin 6 times removed's wife. I've tried removing, adding, merging, moving, assigning parents in the profile (which has shown correctly all along) to no avail. I tried logging off and logging on again, still the same. I had come across this before with more distant ancestors and fixed it by merging but it has not worked this time. I've probably lost information from removing and adding the closely related profiles.

I can't do @ Hatte because you don't come up on my list. I tried again, no luck.It may have to do with various intermarriages. It seems to have gone to a "cousin path" and got stuck on it, when the direct line is obviously closer and much shorter. It is connecting me to my fourth great grandparents (parents of my 3rd great grandmother) via the relatives of my 3rd great grandmother's husband (i.e. my 3rd great grandfather), who must be distantly related to his wife (my third great grandmother). Everything about the tree looks normal apart from that. I feel I've checked everything I possibly could do to fix it. I just can't see what I've missed.

Even stranger, my 4th great grandfather's 1st wife shows up as "your 4th great grandfather's wife". If so, why does not his 2nd wife show up as my 4th great grandmother???? You can see I'm going "off my tree" about this :-)

It seems something went wrong around 8 generations back. I kept going back through the ancestors (parents' parents etc), all showing up as cousins, until finally this one came up as a g grandparent again: "James Mor MacDonald 9th of Sleat is your 8th great grandfather".

It looks like a problem with the program, as if it's confused about the paths. I clicked on the green pins twice all the way through from me but nothing changed.

Could it be caused by a private profile in the middle of your path, Henry Robert Oakes?

Which 4th great grandmother?

Private User - Bjorn is on the case and he's way more technical than I am :)

Usually it's one of two things - a problem in your tree or a temporary cached relationship in Geni's database. I had to learn patience because sometimes all I had to do was wait a few days until Geni updated the relationships in the database and the shortest and correct relationship would be shown again.

This is a serious problem. I have distant relatives, like 20th Great Grandparents come go and some times comes back as a different relative. Cousins go from 8th to 10th to no path. It is like the tree is hit be a tornado every month. Some lines are stable and some are not.

• Julius Creaser was my 40th Great Grandfather, now no path.

• General Robert E. Lee was an 8th, then a 10th cousin, then no path, Now he is married to my 7th cousin.

The only relationships I am 100% sure are the ones I connected to when I built my tree (3892 profiles that I added and researched) before it went public. THen the tornado hit. Gene a curator helped me reassemble my tree.

In your case Walter, it's understandable. Julius Caesar is very distant and also has a lot of people wanting to merge with him/around him.

The Lee family of Virginia is being worked on actively and had a lot of problems. It should be more stable now. I can ask one of the curators who works on it to contact you and take a look at the pathway and see if there are known issues.

@Walter
Here's the relationship between you and Robert E. Lee, as Geni currently draws it. Perhaps you can point out where it breaks down?

Walter G. Ashworth is General Robert E. Lee (CSA)'s wife's 7th cousin four times removed.
General Robert E. Lee (CSA)
→ Mary Anna Lee (Custis)
his wife → George Washington Parke Custis
her father → John Parke Custis
his father → Daniel Parke Custis
his father → Francis Parke Parke
his mother → Col. Daniel Parke, Jr.
her father → Daniel Parke, Sr.
his father → William Parke
his father → Sir Robert Parke II
his brother → Thomas Parke, I
his son → Nathaniel Parke, Sr
his son → Joseph Parke
his son → Elizabeth Baylies (Parks)
his daughter → Lt. Frederick Baylies (1741-1825)
her son → Edward Baylies
his son → Hannah Ellen Smith (Baylies)
his daughter → N. Smith
her son → S. Ashworth
his daughter → R. Ashworth
her son → W. Ashworth
his son

Because there are several private profiles on your end of the relationship (perfectly logical under Geni's veil of privacy), I would need your help to spot any errors. It is also why I had to start with Lee -- you have no green pushpin when I view your profile, even though we are collaborators.

I am also a distant relation of Gen. Lee's --5th cousin 5x removed (his mother was a cousin of my 4th great-grandmother.). I am your 14th cousin twice removed, through the DeBord/Williams lines.

If we do this in this discussion, perhaps we can help others with the same question. If you prefer, you can send me a private message and we will work through it that way.

A general note to everyone following this discussion --
Geni looks for the SHORTEST path. This may be through a spouse instead of through the specific profile of interest.

Someday in the future, perhaps there will be alternate ways of viewing relationships. Right now, the engineers are diligently working to resolve other issues to make Geni even better.

Also, as Hatte points out above, if there is a lot of activity in your area of the tree, it can take some time for Geni to recalculate the relationships. Before using the pushpin too, look for the "recycle" or "refresh" icon - two arrows forming a circle. If Geni has refreshed the cache, you will get the icon. Otherwise, have patience. Try again in 24-48 hours. I can tell you, Geni user traffic can be quite heavy on weekends and things will be slower.

Bjorn, you are much more technical than I am about things like this. Have I done a good job of explaining? Care to add any additional points?

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I made the Henry Oakes' profile public but the others are still the same. I'll try waiting a few days.

This is what my relationship to R.E. Lee was in Nov 2010 through March 2011. This was copied from a screen shot I made, so I would have a record.

What Happened?

General Robert E. Lee my 8th cousin 9time removed
His father – Maj. Henry Lee III
His son - Henry Lee II
Her son - Henry Lee
Her daughter - Laetitia “Lettice” Lee
His Daughter- Alice Burnham – Corbin (Eltonhead)
Her son- Richard Eltonhead, II
Her daughter- Ann Bowers
Her daughter- Mrs. Bowers (Bold)
Her sister- Dulcia Alice Bold (Savage)
His mother- Ellen Savage
Her father- Sir John Warburton
Her mother- Blanche Warburton
His mother- Ellen Davenport
His father- John Done
Her father- John Doane
Her mother- Anne Doane Twenynge
Her mother- Elizabeth Twining Rogers
His mother- Sarah Searle (Rogers)
His father- Nathaniel Searle Jr.
Her father- Comfort Searle
Her mother Hannah Baylies (Searle)
His mother- Hannah Ellen Smith (Baylies)
Her father- Nathaniel Edward Smith
His mother- Susie Gertrude Ashworth (Smith)
Your father- Raymond Henry Ashworth, Sr.
You

Walter,

As Maria said, Geni shows the shortest path, which may not be the direct path. The current path shown is shorter by half a dozen people.

So what you are saying is that Robert E. Lee is my 8th cousin based on this path.

seems to be a good idea to take a screen shot while you relative is still a relation. Before Geni takes the short cut and cuts you out.

Walter,
I believe that the plan is to be able to show multiple paths eventually. Probably only a couple. Remember that the further back you go, the more probable paths that there are to an ancestor.

You are MORE closely related to Gen Robert E Lee through his wife and that's what it shows. A good question is could Geni work it so you can click to have it calculate only BLOOD relationships.

Mike Stangel Interesting point that users may prefer a more distant blood relationship display over a closer by marriage relationship display. Any plans to address this?

Hatte - planned and being worked on since at least March - see http://help.geni.com/entries/469816-what-if-there-is-more-than-one-...

Right, I knew that multiple relations were in the works but wondered about being able to specify BLOOD relationship.

Hatte - yes I see you are thinking about that more specific aspect.

See also http://help.geni.com/entries/478636-ability-to-remove-a-certain-per...

I like that one David! I have wondered about that exact feature. Thanks for pointing me to it.

Displaying multiple relationship paths has been on our "to do" list for a long time, but keeps taking a back seat to more pressing issues.

I believe this is a serious problem with Geni and should be addressed ASAP. It is very discouraging to have a notable relative for several months and have them disappear. I feel if puts a lot of distant ancestry in question. In other words there is little validly to the lineage outside to what you yourself have established. Even that at time come into play.

To recalculate the path, do NOT press the Green Pin,

After the relationship path, if there is a circle made up of black arrows, press the circle to recalculate the path.

Walter, you are STILL related to Gen. Robert E. Lee. Nothing has broken that relationship. The data is still as valid as it was when you entered it.

Geni CURRENTLY displays the shortest path, which happens to be through his wife. As noted above, additional enhancements in the future will allow you to trace alternate paths, but more pressing issues are being resolved first.

@ walter the reason you lost julius caesar as an ancestor is because he doesnt have any living descendents. his son Ptolemy was strangled aged 17 and his daughter died during childbirth and had a stillborn child. so any path you had to him before was wrong.

I was also related to Augustus Caesar which disappeared.

My Relationship to Augustus Caesar
→ Raymond H. Ashworth, Sr.
your father → ^Susie Gertrude Ashworth (Smith)
his mother → Nathaniel E. Smith
her father → Nathaniel M Smith
his father → Jonathan Smith
his father → Deacon Aaron Smith
his father → Abigail Smith-Nash (Kellogg)
his mother → Abigail Martha Kellogg (Terry)
her mother → Stephen Terry
her father → Mary White
his mother → John White
her father → Mildred White, Sr. (Weston)
his mother → Cecilia Neville
her mother → Ralph Neville, 10th Baron of Neville
her father → Isabel Booth
his mother → Sir Roger Booth
her father → John Booth, of Barton
his father → Thomas Booth
his father → Sybil de Brereton
his mother → Maud Brereton (de Hastings)
her mother → Ada of Warenne, Countess of Huntington
her mother → Isabel Elizabeth de Vermandois, Countess
her mother → Hugues Magnus, Comte de Vermandois
her father → Henry I Capet, Roi de France
his father → Constance d’Arles, Reine consort de France
his mother → Adélaïde la Blanche d'Anjou, Reine consort d'Aquitaine
her mother → Gerberge de Gâtinais, wife of Foulques d'Anjou
her mother → Geoffrey Viscomte d'Orleans, of the Gatinais
her father → Aubry I d'Orléans (Orleans)
his father → Bouchard de Fezensac
his father → Aubri de de Fezensac
his father → Adalindis - Hadelinda von Spoleto (NO NAME)
his mother → Segarde (Regarde) von Bayern, (715-?)
her mother → Tassilo II (~741~796) Herzog von Bayern
her father → Théodebald (~536~555) d'Austrasie, Duc de Bavière
his father → Deuteria de Narbonne
his mother → Tonantius Ferreolus, III
her father → Tonantius Ferreolus, II
his father → Flavia Syagria, clarissima femina
his mother → Flavius Afranius Syagrius, Consul
her father → Egidius (330/339-?) Syagrius
his mother → 1Flavius Postumius Syagrius
her father → 1Titus Flavius Postumius
his father → 1Titus Flavius Titianus
his father → Titus Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus (proconsul of asia)
his father → Titus Flavius Sulpicianus Titianus (praefect of Egypt)
his father → Titus Flavius Clemens
his father → Cocceia Unknown
his mother → Sergia Plautilla
her mother → Gaius Octavius (~15-38) Octavius Laenas
her father → Julia Paula Roman Empire
his mother → Julia Octavia Of Roman Empire
her mother → Julia Caesaris "the Elder""
her mother - Julia Caesaris Major
her father Augustus Caesar Roman Emperor